I just finished my last version of an homemade Arduboy. Will have to design and print a case for it now but it is running already.

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Hey all, was looking forward to finally getting my Arduboy to tinker with during the last of the lockdown but it’s apparently been in London since the 22nd of June and neither end of the tracking has updated, concerned it might be a lost cause! Has anyone else received theirs? Or in a similar position?

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I wish I had heard about the META before I bought the Arduboy. I never could understand why they made a handheld that would’ve been completely subpar even 30 years ago, inferior in almost every way to the original GameBoy, but I figured I’d try it out since there was a little community going.

I kept wondering why it had less RAM and sprites and sound channels than the Atari 5200 from 1982, and couldn’t even play games as well as systems from 40 years ago, when playing games is what it’s supposed to do.

But I got one, because I was impressed by games like MicroCity, Curse of Astarok, Catacombs of the Damned. But then, it’s easier to be impressed when the bar is set so low.

People say it has to be small and cheap, but now they’re selling full-color arcade versions for $20. So…why?

Anyway now that I know about the gamebuino meta, imagine how much more impressive those same games would be with music, and color, and 8 times the flash, and 10 times the RAM. And Start and Select buttons. They say it even has an SD card slot, so you won’t have to mock yourself by constantly loading games from a computer or android device, the presence of which reminds you that you already have another device plugged into your Arduboy that does everything the Arduboy does but better.

But I hardly see anything on Youtube showing gamebuino meta games, so there doesn’t seem to be much of a community, so I probably won’t get that either.

Sorry for being so negative, but I really don’t understand the Arduboy. I got excited to try making a game for it, but then I figured I’d have to learn the assembly to get the most out of it. And then still cut out most of the things I wanted to do, because of technical limitations in the year 2020 that weren’t even a problem in 1989.

Maybe I’ll try anyway. For a game like Ardynia here, or any adventure or anything with a storyline, I was thinking when you run out of room for more dungeons, more enemies, etc, you could just make another game as Chapter 2 that continues the story. Once you have the engine and the assets, it would be relatively easy to release a new chapter every month with different maps and a different end boss.

Of course a true continue into Chapter 2 would mean you’d have to somehow upload your Chapter 1 save from the arduboy and then put it into the Chapter 2 gamefile before downloading it. But maybe instead I could use continue codes like NES games used to have.

25 posts - 13 participants

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This has happened twice now, and so I’m making a new rule that will go into the official community guidelines.

If you create an account to post negative feedback about the Arduboy and other products, without first contacting customer support or offering any clear path to resolve the situation… i.e. Just creating an account to publicly complain, is against the rules. This is especially true if you don’t even own the product.

If you want to trash talk the products sold on this website, then go to twitter, or reddit, or facebook, unconstructive negative posts will not be tolerated.

I’ve said it before, this website is not a total democracy, it is in part a tool to increase the value and quality of the Arduboy.

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Hi, I’ve recently been having trouble uploading apps to my son’s Arduboy. It is the original Kickstarter version. I’ve tried a number of USB cables and the most recent was purchased from a Raspberry Pi distributor (vilros.com) and got further than my prior attempts but it fails mid upload:

Writing | #######################avrdude: error: programmer did not respond to command: set addr

Of course the Arduboy is now bricked and I have to press the reset button to get an upload started.

Could it sill be a USB cable problem or is it that the Arduboy now needs to be replaced?

I’m using Debian Buster and arduino 1.8.12.

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This is NOT the game jam theme, it is a different contest!

So I was browsing the interwebs and came across this nugget:

Someone has got a minecraft server running on the 32u4. It requires developing the full stack, and not arduino so it would be some next level development… but…

It would be pretty cool to run a minecraft server on an Arduboy, connect to it and have the switches and physical buttons interact!

The github is posted here, I wonder if there are more resources online too:

So I thought I would make a contest for this! Make a working minecraft server that can run on the Arduboy and win a Arduboy Mini!!

10 posts - 3 participants

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Hello There, I have an animated rotating 3d looking cube. It is going to be a logo for a shmup. Anyways I want it to animate off the screen with realistic gravity as it continues to rotate. I find geometry not hard but realistic gravity examples like Pharaphs Physix confusing for some reason, especially since I have an animation going on at the same time:

#include <Arduboy2.h>

int horizSpin = 64;
int vertSpin1 = 88;
int vertSpin2 = 40;
int SpinRad = 38;

Arduboy2 arduboy;

void setup() {

  arduboy.begin();
}

void loop() {
  arduboy.clear();
  for (int i = 60; i > 0; i--) {
    arduboy.fillRect(0, 0, 128, 64, BLACK);
    arduboy.fillCircle(horizSpin, vertSpin1, (SpinRad / 2) - 1 , BLACK);

    float SpinAng = i * 6;
    SpinAng = SpinAng / 57.296;
    float SpinAng2 = SpinAng + 90 / 57.296;

    int a = (horizSpin + (sin(SpinAng) * (SpinRad / 2)));
    int b = (vertSpin1 - (cos(SpinAng) * (SpinRad / 2))) / 2;
    int c = (horizSpin - (sin(SpinAng) * (SpinRad / 2)));
    int d = (vertSpin1 + (cos(SpinAng) * (SpinRad / 2))) / 2;
    int a1 = (horizSpin + (sin(SpinAng2) * (SpinRad / 2)));
    int b1 = (vertSpin1 - (cos(SpinAng2) * (SpinRad / 2))) / 2;
    int c1 = (horizSpin - (sin(SpinAng2) * (SpinRad / 2)));
    int d1 = (vertSpin1 + (cos(SpinAng2) * (SpinRad / 2))) / 2;
    int e = (horizSpin + (sin(SpinAng) * (SpinRad / 2)));
    int f = (vertSpin2 - (cos(SpinAng) * (SpinRad / 2))) / 2;
    int g = (horizSpin - (sin(SpinAng) * (SpinRad / 2)));
    int h = (vertSpin2 + (cos(SpinAng) * (SpinRad / 2))) / 2;
    int e1 = (horizSpin + (sin(SpinAng2) * (SpinRad / 2)));
    int f1 = (vertSpin2 - (cos(SpinAng2) * (SpinRad / 2))) / 2;
    int g1 = (horizSpin - (sin(SpinAng2) * (SpinRad / 2)));
    int h1 = (vertSpin2 + (cos(SpinAng2) * (SpinRad / 2))) / 2;

    arduboy.drawLine(a, b, a1, b1, WHITE);
    arduboy.drawLine(a1, b1, c, d, WHITE);
    arduboy.drawLine(c, d, c1, d1, WHITE);
    arduboy.drawLine(c1, d1, a, b, WHITE);
    arduboy.drawLine(e, f, e1, f1, WHITE);
    arduboy.drawLine(e1, f1, g, h, WHITE);
    arduboy.drawLine(g, h, g1, h1, WHITE);
    arduboy.drawLine(g1, h1, e, f, WHITE);
    arduboy.drawLine(a, b, e, f, WHITE);
    arduboy.drawLine(g, h, c, d, WHITE);
    arduboy.drawLine(a1, b1, e1, f1, WHITE);
    arduboy.drawLine(g1, h1, c1, d1, WHITE);
    arduboy.display();
  }

Thanks to you all.
Max

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Hi everyone,

I bought my first Arduboy last week, and I have a lot of fun on playing and coding games ! Thanks for that amazing community, I have learned a lot from this forum.

So, I’m working on a program to “help” my 4 years old son to imagine adventures. It’s not really a game, but more some screens to go with its stories. For example, you have a radar screen that shows a scanner and some points are blinking and moving through the screen.

But I also have a screen which acts like a phone : you have a list of contacts (a monkey, a frog and a robot), you select one of them, an animation is displayed to represent the hanging call until the character picks up, and then you have the conversation.

My difficulty is that I handle this workflow with a switch case :

void display(Arduboy2 arduboy, ArduboyTones sound)
{
    switch (screen) {
        case 0:
            controlsContactsList(arduboy);
            contactList.displayConctactsListTitle(arduboy, selectedCharacter);
            contactList.displayContactsList(arduboy, selectedCharacter);
            break;
        case 2:
            displayConversation(arduboy);
            break;
        case 1:
            // Intro has not finished playing
            if (needToPlayHangingIntro) {
                needToPlayHangingIntro = hangingCall.introIsPlaying(arduboy, selectedCharacter);
                return;
            }

            // Hanging animation
            bool hanging = hangingCall.hanging(
                arduboy,
                sound,
                selectedCharacter
            );

            if (arduboy.justPressed(B_BUTTON)) {
                screen = 0;
            }

            if (hanging) {
                return;
            }

            // Animation finished, jump to last screen
            screen = 2;

            // Populates line buffer with random indexes of alphabet symbols
            for (int i=0; i<108; i++) {
                conversationLine[i] = random(0, 30);
            }
            animationTimer.updatePreviousTime();

            break;
    }
}

https://github.com/benoitjupille/exploration-tools/blob/9d85ecf168658370e03e0fb441b9635e65c5bc4d/tools/src/phone/Phone.h#L47

You can notice that i putted screen 2 before screen 1 in the switch cases order. In this order, everything works fine. But if I put the case 2 block after the case 1, then the screen 2 won’t play.

Could you help me by giving me clues on where to start looking please ? I’m not familiar with C++ language, so I was wondering if that’s a recurrent issue on this language, because I’ve never had this kind of problem on other languages.

You can find the whole code on this branch : https://github.com/benoitjupille/exploration-tools/tree/bug-on-switchcase/tools/src/phone

The files concerned are Phone.h and HangingCall.h.

Thanks !

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So, maybe this is a bigger discussion, but why use a switch statement at all if you aren’t in some cases passing through? i.e. you don’t actually break at the end of case A for example because you also want it to run the code for case B.

As I understand it those are the situations where using switch statements are “best”?

Why not use if statements?

Is it just a preference thing? From what I understand to the compiler it’s not that much different.

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Anyone want to join me this coming week to pump out a small game to get warmed up for Games Jam 5? This would be a individual or team activity if you choose to work as a team.

I personally haven’t done much in the ways of Arduboy games development and want to get back into the mindset again.

Required Criteria

• Must implement a class
• Tones or a small music ditty
• A title screen image

Theme

A simple memory game where the more you play the faster it goes.

Duration July 27, 2020 5:00 AM → August 1, 2020 4:59 AM

Will have a basic poll at the end and the winner and participants will just get the satisfaction of dusting off that coding atrophy.

I will be participating, but wont be within the poll since I created this ad-hoc post.

Jump To:

• @tuxinator2009’s MemoryRhythm (Winner)
• @MLXXXp wins too cause… ???
• @lyellick’s September

35 posts - 5 participants

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Hi Cool People,

Could someone share a code example of the best way to use cpuLoad()? And is it better to print the results to the serial monitor or to the Arduboy screen? I guess one would use less cpu?

Thank you.

KB

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As i am still waiting for some parts to arrive i felt kind of borring and thought i start what i initially wanted to do: An Arduboy watch.
Well i forgot to build in a timekeeping IC and also would maybe not have had space for it, so it is just the form factor of a watch (size) and not really a watch.

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Size of the PCB is 42x36mm so it can compare with a commonly used smart watch at least in size. Screen size will be 0.96". I did not yet order it as i still do not know if my design works but will show pictures when i have them.

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I made a simple memory game for the Pre-Games Jam 5 Warm Up called Memory Rhythm.

The game is similar in style to the classic Simon Says only instead of just repeating the buttons back and forth each button corresponds to a different action and one of 7 notes in an octave. As you progress the speed of each action increases. You get 1 point for each successful step in the sequence as well as bonus points for completing a sequence equal to the number of steps in the sequence. Press either A or B at any time to start a game or restart once lost.
MemoryRhythm.ino.hex (30.4 KB)
Source: https://github.com/tuxinator2009/Arduboy_MemoryRhythm
License: MIT

NOTE: This game was made in one day so it’s fairly basic, but if anyone would like to chip in some artwork I’d be more than happy to oblige. The character doesn’t need single frame animations there can be multiple frames per animation as well and I can modify the code to make it work. Could even use the available space to have some kind of background that scrolls when the player slides left and right as well.

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Hi everyone,

I’m sketching a new game. I won’t give you full details here, because this is not the subject. Based on this picture :

The player can “select” a point. I want the player to be able to “navigate” between those points : every time he moves with an arrow button, it will select another point.

Let’s imagine the player is on the blue point. This is just only my point of view :

• From blue, he presses right button : the red one should be selected
• From blue, he presses the down button, the player should be moved to the green point

I won’t go further onto the explanations, because I’m pretty sure this problem has a name, but… I simply don’t know it.

First, do you think I was right on my two assumptions ?
Second, could you help me to put a name on this problem, so I could check some documentation on it.

Thanks !

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I made a simple game for the Pre-Games Jam 5 Warm Up

September Source (CC0 1.0 Universal)

September is a memory game where the buttons you need to press will flash on the screen and you will then need to input them.

It is a bit clunky since I am going about things that aren’t ideal, but have given a lot of great feedback I will carry forward into games into the future.

Notes:

• This is really a proof of concept and a way to dust off some C++ coding atrophy.
• I was not able to get it working in ProjectABE, but that is an issue I personally need to troubleshoot.
• This was a game I made over the course of a day and half.
• @Pharap will be migrating his comments from Pre-Games Jam 5 Warm Up to this post when he has a moment. This is the feedback I was referring to.
• I am open to criticism and tips, but before you post I would make sure @Pharap didn’t already cover them. :P

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This thread is for the Arduboy Game Jam Number 5

Post your games within this category to submit your games before August 31st 2020.

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Arduboy Game Jam 5

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Date: Ends August 31st!

Happening Now!

Topic: Pretty Simple

• Pretty - Use well polished and highly detailed visuals. The goal is to have a game that immediately grabs the users attention and gives highly dynamic feedback to the user in the form of dramatic visual effects.
• Simple - Extremely intuitive gameplay and feedback loops. Think about a game that a child might play, maybe even as young as 3 years old. Or a game that your mom might pick up and right away start having fun with it. Time to practice minimalism.

BONUS Topic(s):

• Simple Code - Code size will be evaluated and ranked from smallest to largest and overall ranking will be derived from averaged with the voted ranking. (i.e. you can get bonus points for making a smaller game that still looks amazing)
• Particles - Implement a dynamic particle system of either individual pixels or sprites. Additional bonus points will be given based on a perceived complexity of the particle system implemented (i.e. you can get bonus points if you have particle effects)

Think demoscene for kids!

Prizes:

• 1st Place - Arduboy Mini
• 2nd Place - Arduboy FX Pre-Mod
• 3rd Place - Arduboy FX Mod-Chip
• 4th Place - Regular Arduboy
• 5th Place - Micro Arcade of your choice

Voting:

There will only be one category of voting, where users will determine which games are of the highest quality and best fit the topic assigned. The direct results of these votes will be eligible for a prize. The ranking will then be adjusted for code size and particle systems and then rankings will again be eligible for a prize. You cannot win twice, but you can choose the higher of the two rewards you qualify for.

What is a Game Jam

A topic is given at the beginning of the jam, and users are given 1 month to create a game from scratch that matches the topic. At the end of the jam everyone votes on their favorite game and winners are determined.

Can I win a Prize?

Yes you can! If you submit a game and it is voted within the top three then you can win a prize!

How can I join?

Create an Arduboy game and upload it to the Game Jam 5 category. On August 31st all games in the category will be evaluated by the community and voted upon.

Can I work in a group?

Absolutely! Teamwork is encouraged. If you work in a group and win the contest, every member of the team will get the prize too!

Can I use pre-existing work?

No, please use stuff that you are creating for the first time. Exceptions: Of course, use the Arduboy library or other openly available libraries. Re-using small elements of code like menu-systems or similar is allowed, but in general it’s encouraged you try something new you haven’t done before.

Can I participate if I don’t have an Arduboy?

Yes for sure! You can use the online Arduboy emulator to write and test your code as well.

How can I get the word out?

Right now, share this post on social media! Tell your Ardu-friends!

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About

Implementing a boiled down version of Agile development and applying it to your games development.

What is Agile?

A google search here or there will get you the answer to this question, but for this instance the basics is breaking down parts of application development into achievable tasks within a sprint. A sprint is usually a time span of a week to two weeks. Within this sprint you commit to what you believe can be done within that time span. If you get it all done within that sprint you can add more from your backlog, which would result in a spike. A spike is when you add work into your sprint that you didn’t originally account for within a sprint. Usually a task is defined by its effort of work in points or estimated time it takes to completed. This is scratching the surface, but its a boiled down explanation.

Sprint Structure

Within agile there is a concept of a sprint, which is a measurement of time where you try to complete tasks. When trying out Agile within Arduboy games development attempt week long sprints. Don’t feel like you have to assign tasks for each sprint, but just add your tasks into the In Progress lane and see what you can get done within a sprint.

To keep track of what you got done within a sprint use GitHub’s milestones for each week long sprint and assign it to a pull request.

Pull Request?

A pull request is when you merge code from a branch to another branch. Within GitHub you can create a branch development and make a pull request into master. Within there you can apply a milestone which would be a sprint.

Why?

It forces you to layout the project in a manner where you can see a story or task in a project by using a Kanban board. A Kanban board is a way to manage work visually so you see the whole picture of a project. An added bonus is that it gets you more task oriented and also get the brain going on what needs to be done to archive a release or whole application.

Bitesize?

Well, there are a ton of resources out there that allow you apply agile to a project. You can get very granular when planning out a project. There can be epics which include stories and tasks where a story could have sub-tasks within it. With this post i’ll be using GitHub Projects using the baked in Kanban board template.

Where Do I Start?

Follow these steps to create your first board.

So… Whats Next?

Well, start asking questions here or just play around. I promise you the little time and effort spent planning out your game within a structure sets you up for success.

Example

With Game Jam 5 I am using agile to better organize my game and keep track of what I get done within sprints.

Use Case:

• Source
• Project Board - This is a closed board that wont be touched. The board created from my game repository can be found here.
• Milestones - Depending on the time you read this you might have to look at the Closed state.

Recommendation:

• Get an idea for a game and give yourself a month to complete it.
• Have each week be a sprint.
• Take a few days to plan and add tasks to your project you wish the game to have.
• Setup milestones so you can track what you completed within a sprint.

Closing

Just ask if things aren’t clear or recommend portions where this post can be improved. There is so much I can add without writing a series.

This is marketable knowledge that is used within the industry, so applying it to Arduboy games development only adds to your toolbox and keeps you current.

Ba an IT Professional

Keep expanding your knowledge by leaning how APIs work!

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Have you seen a game that uses a bit of inertia with a sprite when a button is pressed? Hmm or maybe when the button is released is the proper thing? Anyway, imagine space invaders where you press left and after you release the button, your cannon takes a moment to slowly come to a stop. Any examples you have come across?

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